“The secret of the Grail has been safe for a thousand years, and for all that time the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword have been prepared to do anything to keep it safe.”
One of the initial positives of the fledgling Hasbro Indiana Jones Adventure Series is the depth of characters that they appear willing to explore, and Kazim from The Last Crusade is a great example of this with his Summer 2023 release. He is an exclusive and sold via Target in the US, while available via the Fan Channel here in the UK. Like all Adventure Series releases to date, Kazim comes in the plastic-free closed box using the same Adventure Series logo with the Last Crusade source material only referenced on the box reverse. The side checklist of other figures still refers to the first Raiders of the Lost Ark wave rather than any other Last Crusade releases.
Out of the box we find Kazim in his pin-striped suit as seen in the Venice scenes partway through The Last Crusade. Kazim uses the entirety of the Major Toht suited body with just a different soft rubber suit jacket sleeve applied over the shirt & tied torso. The suit is cast in the dark base colour in the main so the application of the light grey and black pin-stripes is impressive and may well be photo-print tech as there are no obvious paint errors anywhere and the cut-off at the edges is too neat to be done by hand. A red carnation has been cast and stuck onto the lapel and the tie is picked out in cream paint.
Kazim is the first figure (I think) outside of the Doctor Who line to come wearing a Fez, and the head itself is a wonderful stern and determined-looking likeness of actor Kevork Malikyan with facial print technology adding the touch of realism to the eyes.
Kazim features a pair of weapons as his accessories. There is a 30’s era rifle which is extremely detailed in both sculpt and paintwork with the components of the rifle all picked out and visible. Kazim can then switch to a side-load submachine gun. This one is a little more limited in sculpt execution and the paintwork is reserved only for the brown stock and main body of the weapon. Both guns slot securely into Kazim’s right hand and like most of Hasbro’s gun-toting figures a flexible trigger finger can then slot into place. The left hand is shaped to cup the barrel of either weapon.
The articulation count is 17 points all of which are pinless. Kazim misses out on butterfly shoulders, but that doesn’t really matter considering what we do get allows the figure to assume a number of weapon-toting poses with ease.
There is virtually nothing to fault with Kazim other than perhaps his exclusivity, but even that has not driven the base RRP up significantly from the rest of the general range. He is a perfectly executed supporting character that can expand the displays for all-in collectors but remains one that more focused buyers may skip so they can concentrate on the main characters alone. It is interesting that Hasbro’s decisions for The Last Crusade have seen the movie figures launch with three suited figures with Professor Jones, Walter Donovan, and Kazim - teasing us ahead of the more mainstream releases of Last Crusade Indy and Henry Jones Senior.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...